Searching for Sugar Man

For the couch potatoes

Searching for Sugar Man
Director: Malik Bendjelloul
Starring: Sixto Rodriguez, Clarence Avant
Sixto Rodriguez is an American singer-songwriter of the ‘70s who, though

Sixto Rodriguez is an American singer-songwriter of the ‘70s who, though completely unknown in his native country, was hugely successful in apartheid South Africa. The story follows two South African fans, record shop manager Stephen Segerman and music journalist Craig Bartholomew, who set out on an obsessive trans-Atlantic pursuit to discover what happened to their musical hero.

The pair knows no more about the singer than the information they find on record sleeves, and use these clues and his song lyrics to eventually find the elusive singer alive and well in Detroit. Now a recluse living in a run-down house he's inhabited for 40 years, he is utterly unaware that he was hailed a rock god in South Africa. Curiously, Rodriquez never got any money or royalties and was in fact rumoured to be dead.

It’s an appealing documentary about dedicated fans and unwavering faith, but mostly it’s an inspiring celebration of forgotten talent.